Beyond the building blocks: integrating community roles into health systems frameworks to achieve health for all.

Achieving ambitious health goals-from the Every Woman Every Child strategy to the health targets of the sustainable development goals to the renewed promise of Alma-Ata of 'health for all'-necessitates strong, functional and inclusive health systems. Improving and sustaining community health is integral to overall health systems strengthening efforts. However, while health systems and community health are conceptually and operationally related, the guidance informing health systems policymakers and financiers-particularly the well-known WHO 'building blocks' framework-only indirectly addresses the foundational elements necessary for effective community health.

Scale-up of adolescent contraceptive services: lessons from a 5-country comparative analysis.

Background: Poor sexual and reproductive health outcomes among adolescents aged 10-19 years are indicative of the barriers this group faces in accessing health services and highlights a gap in the availability of appropriate services, including adolescent-friendly contraceptive services (AFCS). The HIV Investment Framework identifies contraceptive services as an entry point for HIV counseling, testing, and treatment, and as a component of HIV prevention. To effectively meet the needs of adolescents, greater understanding of effective scale-up strategies for adolescent-friendly services is needed.

Sexually transmitted infections treatment and care available to high risk populations in Pakistan.

Limited literature exists on the quality and availability of treatment and care of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in Pakistan. This article aims to document existing services for the care and treatment of STIs available in Pakistan's public and private sectors to high risk groups (HRG), particularly the transgendered population. We conducted a cross-sectional survey to document STI services in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and Quetta.